Senior Data Science Manager

As a Data Science Manager (Marketplace & ML), you will lead a team of talented data scientists and ML engineers driving AI innovation across Careem’s Marketplace domain for the mobility of things (Food, Groceries, Q-commerce) - optimizing pricing, ETAs, Matching, Dispatching, Demand Shaping and Supply Rebalancing. You will bridge strategic leadership with hands-on technical execution defining the roadmap for marketplace intelligence, mentoring top regional DS talent, and delivering measurable impact through machine learning systems deployed at scale.
This is a high-stakes high-visibility role that partners closely with Product, Engineering, and Operations to ensure data science becomes a core competitive advantage in Careem’s Everything App.

• Define and own the machine learning and algorithms roadmap for Marketplace optimization  including supply-demand balance, dispatching, matching, and ETAs.
  
• Partner with product and engineering leads to identify, prioritize, and deliver high-impact ML and algorithms initiatives with measurable ROI.
  
• Champion best practices for experimentation, causal inference, and data-driven decision making across Marketplace.
  
• Collaborate with other DS teams (Search, Personalization, Integrity, Ads, GenAI) to build shared capabilities and ensure platform alignment.
  

• Lead and mentor a team of 10+ data scientists, ML engineers, and ML Ops; foster a culture of excellence, innovation, and ownership.
  
• Provide technical guidance on advanced ML, causal inference, operations research, reinforcement learning, and offline policy evaluation.
  
• Support career growth through structured feedback, skill development, and exposure to cross-functional projects.
  

• Drive the development, deployment, and continuous improvement of ML models powering marketplace efficiency (e.g., ETA prediction, captains JIT matching, dispatching, batching & pooling).
  
• Ensure robust experimentation pipelines, clear success metrics, and transparent model performance tracking.
  
• Translate complex analytical insights into clear, actionable recommendations for Product and Operations stakeholders.
  
• Collaborate with the Data Platform and ML Ops teams to ensure scalable, reliable, and automated model delivery.
  

• Stay at the forefront of applied AI by piloting emerging techniques (e.g., reinforcement learning, optimization algorithms) in production environments.
  
• Contribute to Careem’s AI community through internal tech talks, publications, or partnerships with academia and research labs.
  
• Champion Careem’s mission to lead the region’s AI ecosystem by building applied research and open collaboration opportunities.

• 8+ years of experience in Data Science or Applied Machine Learning, including 2+ years in a leadership or team lead capacity.
  
• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Engineering, Operations Research or a related quantitative discipline.
  
• Proven track record of building and scaling ML systems in production, preferably in marketplace, logistics, pricing.
  
• Strong problem-solving skills and deep technical knowledge of statistics, optimization, and ML.
  
• Expertise in Python, SQL, and distributed data frameworks (e.g., Spark, Hive, BigQuery).
  
• Familiarity with modern ML Ops and experimentation workflows.
  
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into business impact.
  
• Passion for mentoring, team-building, and creating human-centered AI products.

We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:

• Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues.
• Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential.
• Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.
• Work 4 days a week in office & 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year. (If you are in an individual contributor role in tech, you will have 2 office days a week and 3 to work from home.)
• Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.